DESPITE scenes of drunken revelry across Wales, the traditional Christmas office party weekend passed more quietly than usual, police and emergency services said.

From early Friday afternoon, colleagues on their office Christmas parties and students enjoying the end of term were beginning to filter into town and city centres.

But pubs and clubs said this year’s pre-Christmas partying was not on the scale of previous years. And emergency services – braced for one of their busiest nights of the year – said aside from the odd colourful street scene the evening passed off with “nothing different” to a normal Friday night.

In Cardiff, volunteers had even taken the precaution of setting up a triage field hospital as they braced themselves for tens of thousands of people to descend on the capital’s city centre.

But out of an estimated 30,000 people who were in the city on Friday night, organisers at the centre, which was based at the Millennium Stadium, said they only treated around 35.

Rhodri Jones, who oversaw the operation, which is run in partnership between St John Ambulance, the University Hospital of Wales (UHW) and South Wales Police, said while there was the odd drunken incident it was nothing major to deal with.

Mr Jones said: “We have done it previously on the Friday before Christmas and we have run them a couple of times when there have been Six Nations events when there have been a lot of people in the city centre.

“It was slightly busier than normal but nothing over-exciting.

“We treated 35 patients in the city centre.

“The whole object of the operation is there are a lot of people in the town – coming up to about 30,000 people in town on a night like Friday night – and we try and make sure we have enough resources to cover it without other resources having to come into town.

“We try and deal with the city centre and then take them to hospital. We stitched and glued a few on Friday.”

But Mr Jones said as far as he was aware none of the 35 treated required hospital treatment and in context it was a very minor number, showing Cardiff was a safe place to drink at Christmas.

“Dealing with 35 patients is not that huge a figure but shows we have got the resources,” he said.

“I’m not aware we had to take anyone from the treatment centre to hospital.

“You have got a lot of people – if you are talking about 30,000 people and 35 people were treated last night that’s not a huge percentage.

“Obviously drink plays a part. There were some lacerations and one assault or whatever but it was very, very quiet really.

“Obviously it’s been a hard year for everybody and it’s time for people to let their hair down and we are not knocking anybody for that.

“Everybody’s allowed a drink. Some people drink to excess but it’s a very small percentage.

“What we are trying to portray is Cardiff is a safe city and if you do have any problems, we will look after you.”

Emergency services across Wales confirmed it had been a quieter evening than had been expected.

Inspector Richard Brake, of Gwent Police, said the cold weather may have deterred drinkers.

He said: “In terms of public disorder, it was a good deal quieter, so that was quite pleasing.

“It might have had something to do with the weather. It was particularly cold so that might have had an effect.”

Meanwhile, a spokesman for South Wales police said it was “nothing different to normal” with “no incidents of note”.

Dyfed-Powys and North Wales also said the evening had passed peacefully.

Pubs and clubs said they had been quieter than previous years and people were not out as early as on a normal Black Friday.

Rob Nelmes, from the Odyssey club on Little Wind Street in Swansea, said: “We had a thrash metal night on.

“It was quiet. We weren’t any busier than normal, no not really.”

Shaun Walker, a manager at the bar Mocka Lounge on Mill Lane, Cardiff, said it was quieter than previous years, although he thought more people may turn out next weekend

He said: “From my point of view it has been quiet.

“It’s a strange one this year and I have spoken to a lot of people who consider next Friday to be Black Friday.

“Compared to last year on Mill Lane it was quieter and started a lot later on in the evening.

“We are usually busy from two or three in the afternoon on Black Friday but this year it didn’t really happen until six or seven for us.

“There was a lot less trouble compared to previous years; there was a large police presence and a lot of licensing officers around.

“It wasn’t a non-event, but it was quieter than usual.”

But Mr Walker said he did not believe the economic downturn had any effect on numbers, saying that for the past couple of weeks the bar had remained busy.

“We are quite a premium-style bar and our customers seem to have held in there and come out just as much. We have had a better two weeks than we had last year and previous years.”